Friday, March 9, 2012

To Winkelman on Wednesday

We did nothing but relax on Tuesday, then Wednesday we drove out to Superior and from there headed south to Winkelman and back through Globe. There was cloud cover most of the day, but it was still a magnificent drive. Is this what you picture when you think of Arizona? Neither did I until we started spending so much time here.

Driving in the mountains, wildflowers and green grasses abound.

Loved the deep colors of these wildflowers growing in the rock.

At some point in history there was some gnarly earthquake activity in this area. At one point the layers of angled rock had deep waves in them.

After noticing a roadside sign that said "The Shores, Gila River Management Area" we drove down a narrow dirt lane to the river's edge.

The first thing Rich noticed was a Vermillion Flycatcher which he recognized from the photos I took at the Salt River. My shots of this one were all blurry though. I did shoot these rare ducks that were sitting on a small gravel island in the river. They are Mottled Ducks and only found in two areas of the U.S. In this area they are as rare as my Flycatchers...Great timing, Lucky me!

I could see piles of huge rocks in the distance along the river so took this path through them.

While I was back there, both of the Mottled Ducks took off flying up the river...loved it!

There was little clearing but when the sun did pop through the clouds, it was afternoon and the glare made photography difficult from the car since we were headed west by then.

I'm sharing this photo because rarely have we encountered a grade of 8%...yikes!

Honestly, did any of this match your mind's eye view of Arizona, especially the greater Phoenix area? I will miss these drives through the mountains ogling the varied terrain and vegetation.

And yes, we did get back in time for our weekly gathering at Filly's. Again, this was the last week for some of our new friends; we'll all be heading for home over the next three weeks.